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Falling a bit behind on projects again as I've been a bit ill. Trying to get back on track though.

Made a decision about PL for 2012, the kits are not going to be available until February and quite honestly I can't wait that long, if I don't start straight away and make it part of my routine it won't get done, this year is going to be even more important than ever as it will document our first new families new year.

Because PL didn't come out here in the UK until May/June I did months Jan - June as monthly layouts using making memories 3 x 3 dividers, this means that I have 6 months worth of BH dividers, so when Amazon UK finally have them in stock in January I think that I'll just buy enough to last me the rest of the year and I'll buy a regular folder. I have been debating whether to buy a kit for 2012 as I'm really not keen about having to buy everything separately and think it will work out more expensive.

I have got about 3 weeks behind on PL and this weekend whilst trying to catch-up I realised that I am getting a little bored with the journalling cards and kit stuff, so inspired by Ali Edwards, Jenni Hufford, Lisa Truesdell and Marcy Penner whose PL I really admire I made the decision to just buy the digi kit from Jessica Sprague and mix that with other seasonal or themed items. For December I am going to make my own journalling cards etc with the K & Co Peppermint twist papers that I'm using for PL.

Going to make a start on my December elements now will post a few of them when I've finished. I also need to complete my DD cover.

Not long to go now and so we've been working on a list of things that we need to get for the baby, we have most of the small stuff, the nursery is decorated and if the baby arrives now we have enough, but by the end of November we do want the nursery complete and ready so that once he baby is born we can spend time as a family rather than getting it ready for when the baby goes into it's own room. We are well on the way to this goal.

I have 2 files on my yahoo groups page, one which is my list of things still to get and another is a blank .pdf version that you can download and use for your own purposes.

Got up-to-date with the expecting you album, I'll be working on some checklists over the next few days for this album and will be posting them at some point. I am really pleased at how this album has worked out, especially as I didn't buy any special supplies for it, I just used what I had on hand.

I've been researching Etsy and making plans for a few little items this Christmas, this preparation has involved a re-think on photo's, listings, packaging and costing. One thing I have seriously realised is that I need to style my products better, starting with the quality of my photo's, something that I need to get sorted asap.

One of our aims is to get the baby's nursery all ready for the end of November, we realise that the baby will not be in it until it's at least 3 months old, but we figured that a. it's not good to have paint fumes around a newborn and b. we'd rather spend time with the baby than doing the nursery.

The first step was to get Hayden's old room decorated and cleared to enable us to move Kelsey in there with him (as they are only here 1 or 2 nights every other week we didn't see this as a major problem - neither did they thankfully!)

Karl spent a weekend preparing and decorating the room, then the wardrobe and beds were delivered, K put these up on his own as I was only allowed to read out the instructions and count the screws to make sure everything was there!!!!

The room is now 99.9% finished (just waiting to install a new light fitting). Here are a few photo's:-

Logged on to leave a post to start me off on regular posting and really disappointed that it's been over a month since I last posted and looking at our project life for October, there's not much content there either. Although feeling a bit tired and doing a lot of decorating and getting the house ready I don't really have an excuse Anyway, no point in dwelling, another new start and all that!!!

Have made a decision about December Journalling this year and decided that I'm going to do Ali Edwards December Daily for 2011 rather than Shimelle Laine's Journal Your Christmas. Back in 2008 the first year I signed up for JYC I managed to keep completely up-to-date and loved the experience, however, in 2009 & 2010 I lost motivation after the first few days as rather than journalling about what we did that year, I felt as though I was just repeating on the things we do every year for Christmas and recalling the same traditions and events. Hence my decision to try the December daily instead, although I am going to try and carry it on throughout new year to the twelfth night, which could be quite a challenge given that during this period I will at some point give birth to Baby B. Over the next week or so I will be creating my album using the K & Co's Peppermint TwistI love this design so much!

I also have some transparencies that I brought a while ago (not sure of the make) so seeing AE's DD pages over the last week I'm really motivated that she's using transparencies for her album this year. For my Autumn 11 in 2011 album (and Winter 11 in 2011 - more later in the week) I experimented with using my sewing machine and clear transparencies, seeing AE's DD pages I think I am going to try and incorporate that into my DD too.

Moving on... lots and lots of lists to post, lots of ideas for my etsy to post and time is ticking away I really need to get some items onto etsy although I do fear that I'm going to miss out on Christmas this year although as well as the DD I will also be completing one of my Christmas Journals to use as an example next year. My DD, PL and CJ will all contain similar information but in a different style. If I get 'stuck' I do intend to pick out some items from SL's JYC as 'fillers' but I just don't want to record the same old stuff each year.

And now for a little Nursery craft project picture, a before and after of the mobile I adapted for Baby B's room.

Before, with elephants and giraffes.

And after, with the beach huts and lighthouses I made by cutting the designs from the maritime material from Dunelm Mill and stuffing.

And to end...A list of craft projects I need to complete by 18 November for the Nursery.2 Cushion coversBuntingPicturesPram Blanket

A list of craft projects I need to complete by 31 November for Christmas.4 Cushion coversSpecial Christmas cardsDD albumChristmas Journal